Monday, August 16, 2010

I’m training for the Honolulu Marathon, and I do one long run a week, building up to 26 miles. Last week, I did 13 miles! That’s half a marathon! Hooray for me! I was really slow (13 miles in 216 minutes = 16.6 minutes per mile) but I don’t care! I’m just glad I could do it!

According to Jeff Galloway, the key to the long run is going 2 minutes slower than your projected marathon pace. The last time I tried to do a long run, I think I started out too fast because I started dragging around mile 7. This time I was determined to stay fresh, so I set my interval timer to go 20 seconds running/ 40 seconds walking to force myself to slow down.

It worked really well, and I switched to 30 seconds running/30 seconds walking at mile 4 because I was able to keep my slow pace. I did the :30/:30 interval for the rest of the run and I felt great! In fact, I felt so good that for the last two miles, I even skipped a few walking breaks.

I tend to sweat a lot and lose electrolytes, so I took an electrolyte capsule every half hour and I had my Camelback water backpack to keep me hydrated. I also had a gummi bear every mile after mile 5 to keep my blood sugar up, and I felt great. (Yes, I know, it’s sugar, but what can I do? I needed a small sugar boost or else my blood sugar was going to crash, and when you’re running, your intestines shut down so it’s harder to digest more complex carbs. Jeff Galloway suggested gummi bears, so I tried it, and it really worked well.)

I know I can’t stay on my low carb diet once I’m past 15 miles, which will be in about 3 weeks. But that’s okay, because according to my supplement program, I can start adding in more carbs around that time. Hopefully by then my insulin resistance and hypothyroidism will have started to resolve and I won’t need to continue to limit carbs in order to help my body heal.

Thanks, Jennifer! Yes, if he walks/runs the entire way from the very start, he should have no problems! It's the basis for Jeff Galloway's running method and it totally works! I was only running 3 miles in late May and now I'm up to 13!

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